By Benjamin Akoto
Sunyani, May 5, GNA – Mr Gabriel Kwadwo Afram, an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) teacher at the Sunyani Senior High School (SUSEC), has received a US$15,000 grant from the Scratch Foundation to develop scratch blocks for creative coding.
The Scratch Foundation is a global non-profit organisation dedicated to providing young people with digital tools and opportunities to imagine, create and share ideas on coding.
A letter signed by Ms Elaine Atherton, the Director of Scratch Education Collaborative (SEC) at the United States of America, owners of the Foundation, commended Mr Afram and SUSEC for their commitment to creating coding.
A copy of the letter made available to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani, said: “The US$15,000 grant is to support the creation and piloting of LEGO-like Physical 3-D Scratch Blocks for Creative Coding to support the scaling of creative coding in rural communities and communities that do not have internet access”.
Scratch is a high-level block-based visual type of programming language primarily targeted at children as an educational tool.
“The funding would also be used to support the creation of prototypes of blocks, which includes tactile sprites and backdrops that can be manipulated during hands-on creative learning activities, made from local materials,” the letter said.
In an interview with the GNA, Mr Afram said as part of the grant, training would be conducted for about 200 master of trainers (teachers
and students) who would in turn train other student trainees on how to use the Equitable Creative Coding Resources (ECCRs) for creative coding in their communities.
He was excited that the project would be developed and piloted for students in the Jaman North District and Sunyani Municipality, to enable teachers and students to learn how to code.
That would help eliminate the obstacle of lack of computers and internet access, which had incapacitated their abilities to engage in creative coding over the years, he said.
GNA